Six business partners were found dead in a room at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in Bangkok on Tuesday, July 16. The bodies of three men and three women were discovered by a maid who had come to clean the room, reports the Bild.
Investigators immediately ruled out robbery as a motive, as nothing was missing from the room. On the table in the room where the lifeless bodies were found, police found untouched food and tea sets. All six of the deceased were business partners, it turned out.
After interviewing witnesses, investigators concluded that the killer was Sherine Chong, a Vietnamese woman with an American passport. Chong and the five other deceased had invested together in a major construction project in Vietnam. However, the project failed, and Chong was sued by the five other partners. She was due to appear in court in Vietnam in two weeks.
To avoid the trial, Chong invited the five entrepreneurs to a meeting on debt arbitration in Thailand. They checked into the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel. However, the negotiations apparently did not go well.
Under the pretext of a final conversation, Chong invited all five creditors to dinner. According to preliminary reports, she mixed cyanide into the water in the teapots, which stops the heart and paralyzes breathing when ingested. Chong also committed suicide.
Motive: Failed Investment and Impending Lawsuit
Police believe that Chong poisoned her business partners and then took her own life in order to avoid a lawsuit stemming from a failed investment project. The project, which was supposed to build a hospital in Japan, had reportedly been plagued by delays and cost overruns. Chong had been accused of mismanaging the funds and was facing potential criminal charges.
